Last week, an executive bill forwarded to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari sparked outrage in the polity. Titled “A Bill for An Act to Establish a Regulatory Framework for the Water Resources Sector in Nigeria, Provide for the Equitable and Sustainable Redevelopment, Management, Use and Conservation of Nigeria’s Surface Water and Groundwater Resources and for Related Matter,” the bill seeks to abrogate all the existing laws and institutions governing the management of water resources across the country with a view to bringing the resources under federal control. The bill, which expressly violates the Land Use Act, provides that “All surface water and groundwater wherever it occurs, is a resource common to all people, the use of which is subject to statutory control. There shall be no private ownership of water but the right to use water in accordance with the provisions of this Act.”
The bill further provides that “As the public trustee of the nation’s water resources, the Federal Government, acting through the minister and the institutions created in this Act or pursuant to this Act, shall ensure that the water resources of the nation are protected, used, developed, conserved, managed and controlled in a sustainable and equitable manner, for the benefit of all persons and in accordance with its constitutional mandate. States may make provisions for the management, use and control of water sources occurring solely within the boundaries of the state but shall be guided by the policy and principles of the Federal Government in relation to Integrated Water Resources Management, and this Act.”
Naturally, the president’s move was greeted with widespread outrage. Among others, the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, Socio-Economic Right and Accountability Project (SERAP), Campaign for Democracy and Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide were vehement in their opposition to the bill, which they described as provocative and obnoxious. Advising the Senate to throw away the bill “because it is anti-federalism and capable of further heating up the polity at a time we need peace to reign in the country,” the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum said it was a crude assault on the spirit of federalism at a time when the calls for devolution of power had reached a crescendo. “It is quite obvious that the goal is to take over resources from the states instead of devolving more powers to them,” the forum said, citing the Appeal Court judgment of July 18, 2017, which ruled inter alia that “The inland waterways within Lagos State are not and cannot by any stretch of interpretation be covered by any item on the exclusive legislative list under part one to the second schedule of the constitution.”
Also, Niger Delta leaders under the aegis of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum toed the same path, saying: “The bill portends too many dangers for the Niger Delta. It runs the same gamut with how the region’s crude oil resources were annexed by the Federal Government through obnoxious laws.” The Ekiti, Rivers and Cross River state governments also rejected the bill in categorical terms, while the South-South Governors’ Forum led by the Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson, asked the president to withdraw it immediately. The bill also divided senators along regional lines and had to be referred to an ad hoc committee following the controversy it generated during its second reading. Miffed by the outrage, the Presidency asked those opposed to the bill to consider lobbying the National Assembly.
It is indeed saddening that in spite of the consistent advocacy for restructuring across the country, President Buhari is seeking to further extend the Federal Government’s awesome but unproductive powers and compound the misery of the populace further. As things stand currently, it is a behemoth that has stifled creativity in the states and impaired their growth. It is therefore inconceivable that the same government that Nigerians have been trying to unbundle is now seeking to arrogate more powers to itself and make itself even more impervious to change. However, given the fact that President Buhari has been a consistent advocate of the status quo, the new water resources bill was perhaps to be expected.
Over the years, the Federal Government has been the perfect example of an obscenely wealthy but compulsively prodigal institution. Among other misadventures, it forcefully cornered oil resources for itself but has till date failed to manage it well for the benefit of Nigerians. It made the police a unitary institution but has failed to secure the lives of Nigerians, with the Nigeria Police being consistently ranked as one of the worst in the world. Now, the same government is toying with a bill that is already being derided as “the Fulani herdsmen’s waterways bill” on the social media. It is certainly difficult to puncture the view that the bill is a subterfuge to achieve another version of the failed cattle colony bid.
President Buhari should shelve his centralist convictions. They are hollow and unproductive. Surely, the Federal Government ought not to descend so low as to precipitate another war by making major rivers in the country available to pastoralists to the detriment of the host communities across the country. The proposed bill bodes ill for the country. It is richly deserving of the legislative death sentence. It should get that sentence without delay.
